Posted on 05/20/2020 9:16:09 PM PDT by rktman
Three decades after the Chernobyl disasterthe worlds worst nuclear accidentsigns of life are returning to the exclusion zone. Wild animals in Chernobyl are flourishing within the contaminated region; puppies roaming the area are capturing the hearts of thousands. Tourists who have watched the critically acclaimed HBO series Chernobyl are taking selfies with the ruins. Once thought to be forever uninhabitable, the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone has become a haven for flora and fauna that prove that life, as they say in Jurassic Park, finds a way.
(Excerpt) Read more at getpocket.com ...
I seem to recall back in college a physics professor discounting the claims of having abnormal offspring. “If you get that much radiation you’ll die before you can pass it on.”
I recall the show “River Monster Fishing” (or something like that) where the guy travels all over after big fish - often they are almost in the realm of myth - but the locals catch them periodically.
He did one show in the exclusion zone of Chernobyl.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0zIxExHQcY
hard to believe it was 34 years ago- Time just seems to be flying by-
YES.
I have seen the TV show with JEREMY WADE, the extreme fisherman from ANIMAL PLANET.
The ONE place where there is a REAL problem with radiation in the 1st quarter of the 21st century is on the bottom of the cooling tower lake, which has verified radiation levels IN the bottom’s mud of over 40X that of any other area of the X-Zone.
A Personal Note: As some folks here know, I’m a volunteer with TPWD, a TEXAS MASTER NATURALIST & we have similar volunteers in Ukraine, who are currently doing wildlife & botany projects in the “hot zone”.
The MASTER NATURALISTS of the Ukraine are DOING GREAT WORK, that is INVALUABLE to an understanding of the long-term effects of radiation upon both plants & animals AND which information cannot be obtained by other means.
The VOLUNTEER MASTER NATURALIST groups are in about half of US States & at this time in SIX foreign nations. ===> We TMN invite anyone who is dedicated to fish, wildlife & botany to enter into the training & join us “crazy volunteers” in completing projects that interest you.
Yours, TMN78247
For humans, sensitivity to radiation exposure can be illustrated with a bell curve, with the left side of the curve being people who exhibit sensitivity (die quickly) and the middle being people who are sickened to various degrees but don’t die quickly, and the right side of the bell being people who ‘miraculously’ appear to survive exposure unscathed.
When Chernobyl blew up, around 9 people in the control room were “dusted” with radioactive fuel. One of the men was responsible for the disaster (he ordered safety systems taken offline for a ‘test’). He had already survived radiation exposure in a prior nuclear incident which he caused on a submarine, and he went on to survive being dusted with Chernobyl fuel. The other 8 men died within days and their deaths were grisly. Some of the doctors at the hospital where contaminated patients were taken were ‘dropping’ (sensitive - dying)just from treating patients but other staff survived.
There were towns where, and I am quoting old documentation, “every child was ill”. The body can repair DNA damage and radiation burns, but it has limitations and may have to compete with other challenges to the immune system. An international organization reported that incidents of all disease increased (immune systems were dealing with radiation exposure and so the population was experiencing increased illness/death from other causes their bodies would otherwise recover from).
At the time, some insisted that the concern about radioactive waste and the exposure of the population was overblown because of the variation (bell curve) in genetic sensitivity meant (they said) that in a few generations those who were not sensitive to radiation exposure would dominate the gene pool of the population. A researcher dryly remarked, “Yes, and I suppose you would be satisfied if your entire family died out or battled cancer their entire lives because they weren’t among the genetically resilient.”
There wasn’t enough uncontaminated land upon which to relocate those from affected areas, so many people were forced to live in irradiated zones, raise families, contend with deaths, illnesses and genetic deformities. A translator explained for a woman in an interview that she was given a radiation detector by the government, but the laundry was radioactive, the food was radioactive - she began to cry because knowing that it was all around her did not help because she and those she loved could not leave the area. The footage is sad (understatement).
Finding populations of puppies today doesn’t indicate the suffering and dying of genetically impacted animals (cancers, blood disorders, mutations, sterility etc.) that lived/suffered died during the 36 years between Chernobyl and the present. We don’t even know how long the puppies will live or the percentage of which can’t reproduce or produce mutations. Diseased dogs or other animals may not come out of the forest or explore the area where they could be observed. We don’t know what populations/species could not survive exposure and died out.
I’ve seen articles like the one about puppies before, but to me it’s like spraying a room full of people with a toxin and, after some die, noting that the survivors prove concerns about the toxin is overblown.
“Life will find a way” may mean that a child grew up in a contaminated zone, lived with blood disorders/physical exhaustion and suppressed immunity, wasn’t allowed to move out of the area, married and raised children with lymphomas, cancers etc. I say this having researched it over the years; the reading and first hand accounts are incredibly depressing.
I do recall reading about wild boar populations that were heavily irradiated (high content of Cesium-137); it was hard convincing people that the animals were not safe to eat.
About 10 years ago - sickened populations still living in the contaminated zones of the Ukraine confronted the World Health Organization which the UN forced to “happy talk” exposure zones. The camera faced the floor at times and you could hear the people demanding the WHO act like medical people and admit the medical issues were still present. The WHO speaker anxiously promised to speak the truth to the UN. That was a lie; by design the UN vetted all content produced and distributed by WHO.
Specimens analyzed from the area often show elevated concentrations of long-lived fission products, but nothing approaching lethal or even harmful levels at this point in time. As far as genetic effects go, a good example would be the wild wolves. About eight generations of Canis lupus have passed since the accident and no statistically significant change in mutation rates have been found.
As far as consuming fauna harvested from the area, you could probably do so without immediate or long-term effect, but it is kind of sophistry to suggest it. I mean, why bother? Anyone who has samples meats prepared from feral animals knows that it has a somewhat tough, gamy texture and if it isn't prepared properly can have a somewhat unpleasant, strong taste. If prepared properly it can be utterly delicious (e.g., trail bologna), but for most people you're better off with meat raised for human consumption, usually found under cellophane in your local grocery.
The experts and scientists, while highly educated, don’t know what they don’t know. Science will always teeter on the edge of being proven wrong. It’s an occupational hazard. For that reason they should be less preachy and arrogant. We need more humble scientists, not media sluts and blowhards. /Short rant
I was reading article over 10 years ago that took note of the wild life taking over the exclusion zones.
Life is back to normal in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, after all.
I’ve noticed this with Dr. Fauci. I think in professions like his, the prognosis is one big exercise in CYA. If you get a happy outcome great, but at least he warned you that you might die.
Look at any drug commercial on TV. Underneath all the happy visuals there’s huge narrative “warning label” of all the side-effects — even the most statistically unlikely. The dominate the commercials and are a distraction.
The "zanders" he was catching in that video look remarkably like our walleye here in Michigan. If they are related, he's throwing away one of the best tasting fish that fishermen here would give their right arm for......And he's catching them right and left......LOL!
I'm surprised some enterprising Russian hasn't started a charter fishing business but then Chernobyl in the background kinda has a bad reputation.......
The average commercial airline flight crew gets a higher annual dose of radiation than the average nuclear powerplant worker.
You will get more radiation leaning against a DC Government building than leaning against the security fence around a nuclear power plant.
My instructor at the USMC school for NBC (Nuclear, Biological & Chemical) Warfare Officers told this of his instructor. That instructor was married to a Japanese woman who was a 1 year old infant in a bomb shelter in Hiroshima when the Bomb was dropped. Her health is fine and all their kids have been normal.
The firebombings of Tokyo killed about the same number of people as the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
War is hell. So are famines, genocides and purges caused by dictatorial tyrants.
Rwanda genocide - 500K to 1million killed
Pol Pot - 1.5 to 2 million
and on, and on, and on...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_genocides_by_death_toll
We sleep soundly in our beds because rough men stand watch in the night ready to visit violence on those who would do us harm.
I can tell you as a retired EHS manager, we were required to use worst case scenario. 100 year flood plans was the big one for us to use around storage tanks.
So yes, you are correct in an exaggerated way.
Now I know what to use on those pesky mosquitos.
I grew up in Minnesota - yeah, I think they were walleyes. And nice ones at that. (IIRC Opening was in the middle of May in Minnesota - I wonder if Covid interfered with that?).
I also fished catfish down in Oklahoma. He should have fillet one of those walleyes and set out some big hooks on a trot line for the catfish!
Chernobyl, the original HOAX.
The Chernobyl “disaster” didn’t happen. It ALMOST did, but it didn’t.
The global impact of Chernobyl was ZERO! The local impact of Chernobyl was VERY local and not as bad as portrayed.
Chernobyl is the nuclear (or nucular, George W Bush) equivalent of “Global Warming”.
Check this out! Hiroshima/Nagasaki then & now where actual nuclear BOMBS were detonated, not some pesky nuclear accident. Especially note the “NOW” pictures.
https://japaninsides.com/city-rebuilt-from-the-ashes-hiroshima-nagasaki-then-and-now/
I just finished reading Midnight in Chernobyl. A very good read.
Butt, butt, butt what about the glow in the dark fish we’re having to eat because of Fukashima? What about that huh?
Oh, like climate ‘scientists’ and epidemiologist chart makers? :-) ETLD*
*
End
The
Lock
Down
Well, we’re not allowed to hunt there. But, marinade with some DDT and they’d probably be awesome.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.